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Now we were headed for the church in Cana which is still an active church where couples can be married and/or renew their vows. Leo explained that the wedding at Cana would have been on the third day of the Jewish week – our Tuesday – and the receptions were on the third day after the wedding, or our Friday. It would have been the reception that Jesus attended. The church itself is beautiful, outside and inside but, like the others, it’s what’s underneath that’s the

We left the Church of the Annunciation and crossed a large plaza. At the center of the plaza is a statue of St. Joseph… … with an angel built into the back of the statue. Leo told us to stand at the statue and turn in a circle – that area around the square was first century Nazareth. Evidence of the original town was found right here. The far-left side of the square Along the right side of the square is a Monastery connected to both Mary’s church and the church of St. Jo

The Church of the Annunciation was built over what has been known as the house of the Virgin Mary since the 1 st century. The bronze door to the church is carved with major images from Jesus’ life, from the annunciation to the crucifixion. In front of the church doors, Leo stopped to explain to us that this is the largest church in the Middle East and, according to Leo, the church which broke the heart and spirit of Antonio Barluzzi,

As we headed for the main road leading away from Bethany, it started to rain. While it was just drizzling, I snapped a pretty good picture of the blue skies over Bethany that we’d left behind in the hills. As we were traveling to Cana in Galilee, the landscape around us gradually changed from scrubby desert with storms to shepherds' fields…. … to a real desert with a guard tower on top . And everywhere, everywhere there were caves. Mid-way to Cana, we had to go through the We

Hi Everyone, I was going to add this to Friday’s post – but I’ve heard from so many people who are worried that I’m in Israel right now, that I decided to post it right away. Please be assured that neither I nor anyone from our church group is in Israel right now. Before Ash Wednesday, I posted an explanation about this on my website blog – and I honestly thought I’d posted it on Facebook, too – but I never noticed that the Facebook post didn’t “take”. So, here is what I wrot

In my earlier posts, I forgot to mention that Jim and Mary Lovelace, are the couple (and friends) who actually organized this trip of a lifetime. As our coordinators, they were responsible for making sure that, a) we were enjoying the trip, b) we were ready to leave on time each day and, c) we all made it onto – or back onto – the bus. You would think this would be easy with a group of adults, but you’d be wrong! Leo was constantly telling them that we had to move faster, or

St. Catherine’s church is on the same site as the Church of the Nativity, with a lovely courtyard between them. However. As you can see in the courtyard, St. Catherine’s shares a wall with the church of the Nativity. That wall runs through all the levels of the church. St. Catherine’s is gorgeous inside, and we stopped to pray at the main altar of the Church. Leo told us that this is the church where their Christmas Mass is said every year. The stained-glass window behind t

After lunch we drove to the Church of the Nativity, built over the birthplace of Jesus and which Leo said is the world’s oldest functioning church and the oldest complete church in the Christian world. We were all surprised at the entrance door – everyone had to stoop way down to get inside…Leo explained that the changed to the door was done around 1500 to prevent theft, because many years ago people would bring carts right to the ch

Leaving Masada, we drove to the Shepherds’ Field, which is now a walled field with a church, of course, that is less than 2 miles from Bethlehem. We could see the town from the entrance to The Shepherds’ Church, and just after we passed under the gloria arch that leads to the church, I turned and snapped this picture, showing how close Bethlehem appeared to the Shepherds’ Field. The church itself was built over the actual cave and the field where the shepherds saw the ange

Day 1 in Israel ends, Day 2 begins. Back on the bus, we all compared experiences... We’d all brought something back from the Dead Sea… several of us brought mud, some brought water and the shoppers brought all kinds of neat things! That night after a quick dinner, we dragged off to bed, exhausted! Day 2 in Israel: The next morning, we and our good friends Sheila and Carol, came downstairs to a breakfast filled with wild laughter. It seems that another good friend had bro

After leaving the Jordan River, we drove through the Judean desert, where the mountains are filled with caves. We stopped at a point where our guide, Leo. pointed out caves high in the mountains where Jesus is believed to have stayed after his baptism by John. Along one horizontal ridge of caves, Mount of Temptation Monastery was built. Its largest dome covers the cave where it’s believed Jesus stayed after his baptism by John. Next, we traveled to Jericho where we stopped

Before heading to the Jordan River, we stopped at a place called Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Just beyond the building where copies of the scrolls and jars were in are on display, is the actual cave where the scrolls were found. A young shepherd and his goat were walking across the flat space at the top, when the goat wandered down and fell into the small hole at the top left side of the mount. To save the goat, the boy let himself drop down into the cave –

“Welcome to Israel!” The lovely lady welcomed us with boxes of wonderful chocolates! Nope that’s not normal… it was to make up for all that we’d been through! Our plane had been stuck in New York for 7 hours, while we waited for -- off all things! – a new engine for our plane! We’d been on that plane for 17 hours by the time we got there… We’d missed any chance to shop in Tel Aviv and we wouldn’t have time to see the salt/rock “statue” that used to be Lot’s wife. Instead

A few years ago, I went on one of the greatest adventures of my life. Me, my daughter, our pastor and a group of 40 or so friends from my church traveled to Israel. I’d always had a hunger to see what the places in the bible really looked like… and while TV series’ like “The Chosen” are amazing in their portrayal of the characters, their homes and the land… there is nothing on earth like seeing it for Yourself, up close. ( No, it’s NOT the same – in many places the important

When I was a teenager, I (finally!) made it onto the varsity cheerleading squad – and realized right away that I knew nothing about football! So, I asked my father to help me – and that’s the fall that I fell in love with football, and my dad. He was a die-hard Giants fan – so each week we watched them and Buffalo! Why Buffalo? Because it was so much fun watching the teams slip around in the snow! Dad explained all the moves and fouls and I explained why I was laughing

Recently college football fans (my husband and I included) watched the Indiana Hoosiers win their first national championship in their college playoff championship game against the Miami Hurricanes, thanks in great part to their outstanding quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, who made amazing plays throughout the game – that went right down to the wire! In the post-game interview, when the Heisman trophy winner was asked where he got his incredible strength to keep fighting till t

We all love our pets, and most of us hold a special spot in our hearts for shelter pets…. In 2017, a young Vermont woman, Maggie DeGreenia, adopted an adorable grey and white cat from her local shelter. “Tinsel” had a little white mustache and Maggie fell in love with her. In December of 2021, though, Tinsel accidentally got out of the house and disappeared. Winters in Vermont are cold and snowy, so when Tinsel didn’t respond to Maggie’s calls and yard search, Maggie, her fam

Christmas is behind us now, and I’ll bet we’re all still feeling pretty good about our charitable giving this year. I know I was… until the news story about a young woman who owned Astro Toys, a store in Arizona, blew me away! After five years of joyful ownership, the strained economy led the owner, Lorenia Fierros, to make the hard decision to close the storefront. While most store owners would run a “going out of business” sale, Lorenia remembered her own childhood Christma

It all started with the final game of the basketball tournament for The Academy High School girl basketball team. The girls were in a tight game against Apache High School – a nail biter of a game that ended when one of the Academy girls hit a buzzer-beater at the very last minute of the game. They Won! After being awarded the Division Championship, the girls proudly brought their very first division trophy home! It was their crowning glory! But, this is where the real story

If you use Amazon, you know that their delivery drivers are really nice people. But the nighttime drivers are special… they have a number of deliveries that have to be made in just a few hours. But that didn’t stop one driver in a town near me. She was delivering a package when she noticed light coming from the home’s detached garage – realizing it was fire, she sprang into action. Another person might have called 911 and then taken off, but she also knocked (and knocked) on